Firefighters union hits back

Firefighters have accused their bosses of exaggerating the cost of false alarms so they can reduce their response to central city calls and cut costs.

Earlier this week the Fire Service said more than 25 percent of all fire calls in the past financial year were false alarms and cost taxpayers up to $25 million. Of the 73,512 jobs the Fire Service attended in the year to June, firefighters turned back from 20,373.

Of those 41 percent were in the Auckland region, where up to 74 percent of all calls to central city stations were false alarms.

The Auckland Firefighters Union told NewstalkZB the figures released by the Fire Service were paving the way to reduce the response to central city buildings with fire protection systems.

President Jeff McCulloch said the only additional cost for attending a fire was the diesel used by the fire trucks.

He said fire fighters were being paid regardless of what they were doing.

Mr McCulloch says the Fire Service had already tried reductions but had to delay them a few times.

Last month the Fire Service rejected criticism from the union over its response to a $7 million fire in a south Auckland warehouse.

The fire destroyed the two-storey Corporate Consumables warehouse in Mt Wellington.

The union said initially only two appliances with eight firefighters were sent and that was not enough. There were also delays in sending specialist appliances

The Fire Service had refused to listen to union pleas to change its policy and send at least three appliances to property fires at the first call. Mr McCulloch said the delays in sending specialist appliances significantly contributed to the overall loss of property.

- NZPA